Actually, I don’t think the impact will be on the murder rate but on the state’s ability to get criminals to turn informer or to plead guilty to a lesser offense.

Our criminal justice system is (probably mercifully) weak. The death penalty is a tool to force either cooperation or a plea deal. Without it the state will be much weaker. There will be fewer convictions and much less cooperation.

“Not to change the subject, but someone planted a suitcase bomb at Sea World....”
*******************************************************************
Probably that damned killer whale again. He should have been given the death penalty.

There is no evidence that the death penalty serves as a deterrent to murder.

I think it is an entirely appropriate punishment for certain crimes, but I recognize that it is punitive in nature, and does not really work as a means to convince others not to commit the most heinous of crimes.

I believe in the death penalty..that some crimes are so heinous that society has the right to execute the perpetrators.

OTOH, if it takes 20 years, or 30, or never, to carry out the sentence, then that makes a travesty of the law. Also, millions are spent on appeals ..I'd rather see the families of the victims get that money, instead of lawyers.

Re: life without parole...there is already a nascent movement among the loony-left criminal defense bar that it is also a "cruel and unusual" punishment. Look for this effort to expand.

In California, where the jails are overcrowded, criminals are actually refusing to accept life-without-parole please, because the courts have mandated that death-row inmates get better facilities, care, amenities. They know they likely will never get executed, the sentence won't get carried out...so they don't take the deal.

And of course, this puts prison guards and all who have to deal with inmates at risk...violent offenders doing life without parole can in effect kill at will..with no risk of punishment..

OTOH, if it takes 20 years, or 30, or never, to carry out the sentence, then that makes a travesty of the law. Also, millions are spent on appeals ..I'd rather see the families of the victims get that money, instead of lawyers.

You make a good point. There are no circumstances in which a death penalty appeal should drag on for even 10 years. If a death penalty case is not clear-cut enough to justify a fair but short (say, maximum 5 years) appeal process, then perhaps a death sentence is not appropriate in that particular instance.

Unlikely. Most criminals don't think past the next 2 minutes or at most to their next fix. Doubt that they'll take this into acccount. The real problem lies with the families of the victims never seeing closure (even the feeble sort of seeing the murderer executed). The other problem is that "life in prison" is often NOT life and the scumbag will get out eventually.

26
posted on 10/02/2013 4:54:40 AM PDT
by from occupied ga
(Your government is your most dangerous enemy)

Here in Baltimore County we have 1 or 2 murders a year. Baltimore City has 300+. They havent enforced the penalty for decades.

OK. New York and Wisconsin don't have a death penalty and there homocide rates are ~ 20% and 50% below the national average, respectively. Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia, and Alabama are four of the most active death penalty states and their homocide rates exceed the national average by ~10% or more. The statisitcs show that a state's homocide rate has nothing to do with death penalty laws or the number of executions and everything to do with demographics.

I have advocated eliminating the death penalty for that reason and the expense (and enrichment of lawyers) of the appeal process. Why spend the money to keep them alive during the appeals and paying for the appeals? Put a large percentage of lawyers out of work and eliminate public guilt for executions of innocent people. Cheaper to let jailhouse justice work it out.

"Who is to say the State wouldn't attempt to get those who disagree with them on death row? That is the issue I have."

The State, personified by Florida's prosecuting state's attorney, Angela Corey, would have put George Zimmerman on death row if she could have....and all for political-witch-hunt reasons, nothing more.

The State, personified by Florida's prosecuting state's attorney, Angela Corey, would have put George Zimmerman on death row if she could have....and all for political-witch-hunt reasons, nothing more.

Precisely why I am against the death penatly except for the most heinous of crimes, when there is absolutely no doubt.

Why would people who mistrust the government give them free reign to kill?

Make no mistake, gun control and the abolition of capital punishment are connected at the hip. If you want gun liberty, you truly need to execute the most heinous of criminals, and you need to do it expeditiously, not wait ten or twenty years to do so.

What America has been waiting for is a conservative congress, with conservative chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, and a conservative POTUS, and there are several reforms that can be made quickly.

In order of importance, these reforms include:

1) Declare the individual states to be “competent authorities” to carry out executions “as they see fit”. This takes away the ability of anti-capital punishment federal judges to nit pick about *how* prisoners are executed.

2) Declare that only trial evidence can be included in an appeal, not outside or unrelated evidence like statistics about the death penalty.

3) Move all death penalty appeals to the head of the federal docket, with limits on how long the appeal can be delayed, to one month for the defense, one month for the prosecution, and one month at the discretion of the judge.

Just these things alone might reduce the wait for punishment by as much as half. Other, more technical reforms to reduce the delay to a maximum of five years.

39
posted on 10/02/2013 7:24:40 AM PDT
by yefragetuwrabrumuy
(The best War on Terror News is at rantburg.com)

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